Latex for Less Mattress Review

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On a mission to provide sleepers with a mattress that’s as eco-friendly as it is customizable, Latex for Less has debuted its all-latex bed, which features a flippable construction built with organic materials.

While these features are certainly attractive, I’m not going to be sold on this mattress until I put it through my tried-and-true tests to figure out how it feels, how it sleeps and whether or not it could be the mattress of your dreams.

CONSTRUCTION

The Latex for Less mattress features a simple construction of just two latex layers, measuring up to a total 9” of comfort. Depending on how you choose to orient the bed, you’ll either have a 2” layer of Talalay latex (light, airy) overlaying a 6” section of Dunlop latex (firm, dense) or vice versa. The former configuration is meant to evoke a “Medium” feel while the latter is designated as “Firm.”

I should also mention that regardless of the type of latex (Talalay and Dunlop are, after all, just two different manufacturing processes), Latex for Less prides itself on sourcing its latex from a single origin spot, in this case Sri Lanka. This is generally considered to be a good thing, as Single Origin manufacturing ensures better worker treatment and a more transparent production process.

All that being said, let’s dive into these layers and see what’s going on below!

Cover – Built with organic cotton, the cover is soft and breathable. It’s also quilted with all-natural wool, which creates a gentle feel that’ll provide the sleeper with immediate comfort.

Close up of the cover of the Latex for Less

Medium Layer – As I mentioned up top, the medium layer is comprised of 2” of Talalay latex, a lightweight material that’s soft yet very responsive. While positioning this section above the Dunlop layer (as I did for this review) will allow the sleeper to sink in for some nice pressure relief, the bounce is likely to mitigate any sort of stuck-in-the-bed feeling you might feel.

Firm Layer – Made up of 6” of dense Dunlop latex, this section makes for a solid foundation when oriented below the Talalay layer. Once flipped, it becomes a firm comfort layer best suited for those who want to feel squarely positioned on top of the bed (looking at you stomach sleepers!). Regardless of the configuration, the latex is going to do a great job of keeping things cool throughout the structure.

There are two layers of latex foam in the Latex for Less mattress

FIRMNESS

After taking a look at the construction of the Latex for Less bed, let’s chat about the firmness and feel. I started off by applying light hand pressure to the mattress and found that I was immediately interacting with the gentle wool quilted into the cover. Pressing in further, my hand began to sink into the Talalay layer, though it pretty quickly bounced back up to the surface thanks to the buoyant lift of the latex construction.

Pressing into the Latex for Less

Since folks of different sizes and weights are going to feel firmness differently, I brought in three other testers to help me figure out how firm this mattress is. To do this, we each took a turn lying on the mattress and gave it a personal firmness rating. We then compiled these scores on the graph below.

While feel is always going to be an individual thing, our responses should give you a pretty good idea of the firmness range you can expect from this bed.

Showing the firmness ratings for the Latex for Less from 4 different testers

Though our responses were a bit all over the place on this one, we did land on an average firmness rating of 5.5. When compared to the industry standard of 6.5 for medium firmness, it’s clear that this bed is fairly soft.

I personally gave the bed a 5.5 as I found the combo of lightweight Talalay latex and quilted wool produced a gentle feel that allowed me to sink into the mattress quite a bit. Though this sinkage was eventually curbed by the firm Dunlop latex foundation, I still experienced the bed as having an overall soft feel.

I’ll remind you that I only looked at the mattress in the “Medium” configuration and that flipping the layers to have the Dunlop section on top would likely result in a firmer feel.

Lying on the Latex for Less mattress

Pressure Map

When speaking about the feel of a new bed, it’s also important to take a note of pressure, or more specifically where pressure points are likely to form while lying on top of it. While I could describe where these tension spots are bound to crop up, I thought it’d be more helpful to provide you with a visual representation instead.

To do this, I placed a pressure map on top of the mattress and lied on my back, side, and stomach. You can see the results on the image below where pressure is represented from blue (low pressure) to red (high pressure).

Showing the Latex for Less pressure map results from a few different positions

Back – Lying on my back, I could really feel myself sinking into the mattress, with the soft Talalay latex working to fill in the space at my lumbar region. In spite of this sinkage, I didn’t feel stuck in the bed and found it easy to move around and change positions.

Edge Support – Scooting closer to the side of the bed, I detected some pretty deep compression through the top layer of foam. While I didn’t feel as though I’d roll out of the structure, I wouldn’t say that I felt super secure either. What this means is that you’re not likely to be able to utilize the entire surface area of the mattress, which could be a dealbreaker for those of you looking to share the bed with a partner.

Sinking into the Latex for Less mattress

Side – Turning onto my side, I felt some solid relief at my shoulders and hips, typical problem areas for side sleepers. I’m not too surprised by this, as those who doze primarily on their sides tend to favor softer beds that allow for some nice sinkage at these sensitive spots.

Stomach – Stomach sleepers on the other hand are the opposite in that they prefer a firmer bed that keeps the spine in a nice, even line. Here, I could feel my hips sinking into the mattress, which caused them to fall out of alignment with my shoulders. I’ll reiterate that I was lying on the “Medium” orientation of the bed, so strict stomach sleepers may want to consider flipping their Latex for Less to the “Firm” side.

Lying on my side on the Latex for Less

MOTION TRANSFER

If you plan on sharing your bed with a partner, you’ll want to know what it’ll feel like when the other person tosses and turns in the night. This next test is intended to demonstrate just that by showing the intensity of motion detectable from one side of the mattress to the other.

To illustrate this motion transfer, I dropped a 10 lb. steel ball from heights of 4 inches, 8 inches and 12 inches and measured the disturbance it caused: the bigger the lines, the bigger the disturbance.

FYI: Each drop is meant to symbolize a different movement you’re likely to experience in bed, from tossing and turning (4”) to getting out of bed (8”) all the way to full on jumping (12”).

Showing the disturbance transferred across the Latex for Less when a 10 lb ball is dropped from heights of 4, 8 and 12 inches

In my opinion, these results are fairly average when compared to other foam mattresses on the market, but actually pretty great when compared to other all-latex models. Since latex is such a bouncy material, beds that heavily feature it tend to suffer from major motion transfer issues, so I’d say if you’re a fan of latex and sleep with a bed mate, this could be a great pick for you!

SINKAGE TEST

When buying a new bed, most people want to know whether they’ll feel like they’re sinking “into” the mattress or laying “on top” of it. To visualize this sinkage, I placed four balls of varying sizes and densities (a 6 lb medicine ball, a 10 lb steel ball, a 50 lb medicine ball, and a 100 lb medicine ball) on the mattress and measured how much they compressed the surface.

The variations in size, weight and density are meant to simulate different body parts and different sized sleepers.

Measuring how far balls weighing 6 lbs, 10 lbs, 50 lbs and 100 lbs sink into the Latex for Less to simulate different body parts

6 lb medicine ball: 1.5 inches of sinkage.

10 lb steel ball: 2.5 inches of sinkage.

50 lb medicine ball: 4.5 inches of sinkage.

100 lb medicine ball: 5.5 inches of sinkage.

Considering the short 9” profile of the bed, these are pretty dramatic results, and tell me that you’re likely to experience a lot of sinkage, especially with the Talalay latex on top. That being said, I found that the buoyant support of the material helped to lift me up and out of the structure so I didn’t feel too stuck in the mattress.

And remember that if you’re concerned about sinking in too much, you can always flip the bed to have a firmer feel.

Logan Block

Logan is the content director of Sleepopolis, which means he not only reviews new mattresses every week, but also curates all the comparisons, best of pages, and video guides on the site. He takes a straightforward, honest approach to his reviews and endeavors to give viewers an objective look at each new product he tries out. Logan’s perfected his method over the course of personally testing over 100 different mattresses, so he’s not only able to discern the overall vibe of a specific bed, but to contextualize its feel within the bed-in-a-box market as a whole. Needless to say, his sleep knowledge runs deep, and he loves nothing more than sharing that knowledge with his readers. When he’s not hopping on a new bed or working with our editorial team to whip up an engaging sleep education guide, you can find him reading books on world history, walking his dog Pepper, or searching for the best cheeseburger in New York City.

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